Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Washington, DC, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The remembrance of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor took on partisan political spin Tuesday with a Democrat leader using it to attack House Republicans.

[This would be a leader of the same Democratic Party that criticized President Bush for “politicizing” the GWOT during the election, right? OK, just checking.]

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a special Pearl Harbor Day statement, said national unity 63 years ago enabled Americans to go forward and defeat the country's enemies, but the same kind of unity needed now was being undermined by Republican disagreements over provisions of the yet-to-be-voted on intelligence reform bill.

[Um… just what were those “disagreements? That’s an important question to ask. Oh, wait, that’s addressed later. For now, we’ll just wonder why it was ok for the Democrats’ candidate to oppose important defense bills (like the $84 million) over specific provisions, but when the Republicans do, they’re “Undermining Unity”.]

"While we as a nation are united in this fight, there are clearly deep divisions within the Republican Party, divisions that are impeding our fight against terrorism," he said. "Moving forward, it is my sincere hope that the Republicans running Washington will stop playing their political games and start fighting for the American people, just as our honored veterans did 63 years ago."

[For any politico, especially Terry McAuliffe, to criticize his opponents for “playing political games”, is the height of hypocrisy.]

Intelligence reform arising from the Sept. 11. 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington, was stalled in the House earlier this month over concern by some GOP leaders that provisions detailing intelligence authority could hamper military units getting real-time tactical information from spy satellites and aircraft.

[A valid concern. Throughout the Clinton years, one of the issues that hampered the US military in its efforts to combat terrorist groups was the amount of time it took tactical units to get actionable intelligence, and furthermore to get clearance to use it. Anything that would block the flow of information to the boots on the ground are what is referred to in military terms as a Bad Thing.]

New language appears to have assuaged those concerns and passage of intelligence reform could come this week.

[Great. Super. So it’ll pass, the sketchy bits that might have handcuffed our troops are fixed, and reform will roll on. So what’s the beef? Are the Democrats specifically opposed to clearing the way for the military to receive important information? Or are they just playing up the delay it took to get that fixed, specifically to make Republicans look bad? That wouldn’t be a case of the Democrats “playing their political games”, now, would it?]

Vulture 6 is right, this is tacky. It’s also an indication of how low the DNC will stoop. Fortunately, this attack at Pearl Harbor won’t succeed.

First they came for Logic, and I did not speak out, for I did not think logically. Then they came for Reason, and I did not speak out, for I did not think reasonably. Then they came for Thesis and Synthesis, and I did not speak out, for I did not think synthetically. Finally they came for me, and I could no longer think for myself.